Malaysia’s domestic demand is expected to remain upbeat in the fourth quarter of this year supported by a resilient labour market, easing inflationary pressure, a rise in tourism activities and supportive economic policies, said MIDF Research.
It said in a research note on Thursday that retail trade growth is forecast to reach 11.8% this year and 8.1% in 2024.
As for the third quarter of the calendar year 2023 (3Q CY2023), distributive trade sales expanded by 6.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) (2Q CY2023: +5.7%), signalling a slight improvement in Malaysia’s gross domestic product performance.
Malaysia’s retail trade posted a growth of 5.9% y-o-y in September 2023, slightly lower than the four-month high pace recorded in August 2023.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, non-seasonally adjusted retail trade still grew at a pace of +1.4%.